1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to bicycles and like wheeled vehicles and, more particularly, to bicycle wheel mounting assemblies for axial mounting of a bicycle wheel on, and axial removal of the bicycle wheel from, a bicycle frame, while maintaining a wheel drive mechanism securely in place on the frame throughout the mounting and the removal of the wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wheel maintenance on bicycles is often laborious. Conventional bicycles have front forked frame struts that straddle both sides of a front wheel, and rear forked frame struts that straddle both sides of a rear wheel, thereby making wheel replacement difficult. The rear wheel typically has a hub equipped with, and coupled to, a drive mechanism, which conventionally includes an axle, a gear changer, a clutch and a braking assembly. The presence of the drive mechanism makes wheel repair and replacement, as well as security removal, especially time-consuming, since a flat rear wheel has to be decoupled from the drive mechanism prior to being radially removed from between the rear struts.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,979,012, I proposed removing a rear wheel axially along its axis of rotation from a bicycle frame. In one embodiment, one of the frame supports straddling one side of the rear wheel was pivoted radially out of the way to permit the axial removal, while another of the frame supports straddling an opposite side of the rear wheel remained in place. In another embodiment, only a single frame support was used to support the rear wheel. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,369 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,121 disclosed single frame supports for supporting the rear wheel at only one side thereof.
As advantageous as these patented wheel mounting assemblies were, after removal of the wheel, the drive mechanism was supported at only one axial end by a single frame support. Due to lack of a secure support, the drive mechanism was subject to tilting due to a relatively large lever torquing moment. Once the drive mechanism is out of its true position, the return of the wheel on a tilted drive mechanism requires a wheel alignment procedure, which is typically performed not by a user, but by a bicycle repair shop with calibrated equipment.